WASHINGTON – Saying that now is precisely the time that Congress needs to focus on dynamic opportunities for growth in our economy, Idaho Senator Mike Crapo, a senior member of the Senate Finance Committee, today said that tax reform being considered in the Senate will help middle and lower-income taxpayers. The Senate Finance Committee today began consideration of its proposed tax reform bill, the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, providing members of the Committee an opportunity to deliver an opening statement with continued debate and consideration of amendments on the bill continuing throughout the week.

Video of Sen. Crapo’s may be found by clicking on the image above and his full statement is pasted below.

“Mister Chairman, everyone here has heard me say many times that if we had tried to, we probably could not have created a tax code that is more unfair, more complex, more expensive to comply with, or more anti-competitive to our own American business interests than the code we are working on. And finally, we have an opportunity to move forward with meaningful reform. And, once again, the attack is made that it is just an effort to try to raise taxes on the poor or the middle class, and cut taxes for the wealthy. Rhetoric is flying all over the place. Well, let us just look at some of the facts.

“We all have in front of us, or should, the distributional charts that have been put out by our own tax writers and assistants. The Joint Tax Committee’s reports show that taxes will go down, the amount of taxes in dollars will go down for every single income category in America. And if you look at these distributional charts, you will see that the largest percentages of reduction are in the lower and middle-class income categories. The same charts also show that the average tax rate will go down for every single income category in America. And, once again, a greater percentage of reduction for those in the lower to middle-income tax categories. Yet, we will continue to face the attacks that what we are doing is trying to raise taxes for those in the lower and middle-income categories so that we can feather the nest of the wealthy. The opposite is the case.

“If our tax reform can save millions of additional lower and middle income families from having to save their receipts and dig them up again each year at tax time, do not tell them that is not a meaningful benefit to them.

“If the simplification of our tax code can further save those lower and middle income families from the need to pay potentially hundreds of dollars a year for someone else to prepare their tax returns because the code is so complex, do not tell them that is not a benefit.

“If every single member, of every single bracket of income earners in America gets a tax reduction, and the biggest percentage of tax reduction goes to those in the lower and middle-income tax categories, do not tell them that we are raising their taxes.

“If pro-growth effects of making American business more competitive around the world can result in higher wages and more job opportunities for lower and middle-income families, do not tell them that we are feathering the nest of the wealthy.

“The reality is we are going to address the true problems with our tax code and it is going to help all Americans have a stronger, healthy America, a stronger family, stronger wages, better job growth, and an ability to start building ourselves out of our fiscal crisis.

“There’s another very important effect of comprehensive reform that we have got to fully explore. Some have suggested our current fiscal situation means it would be irresponsible to do any kind of tax reform that increases the deficit on a static, or current-law basis.

“Actually, the opposite is the case. This is precisely the time we need to focus on the dynamic opportunities for growth in our economy.

“On our current path, our own [Congressional Budget Office] analysts have told us – if we do not change our course, we will see our rate of growth in this economy stay at its stagnant level of below two percent. And other analysists have said that if we will take a dynamic approach to fixing this broken tax code, and making ourselves more competitive, we will see rates of growth that could significantly increase, again helping not just individuals and families, but at helping this nation become much more competitive economically.

“I see that my time is running out. I had some charts and some analysis here to go through. I guess I will do it at another time when we have an opportunity to discuss it, but Mr. Chairman, it is time to fix our code. We no longer need America to have the most complex, the most expensive and the most anti-competitive code in the world, and one that pushes down our own citizens’ ability to grow and achieve their American dream.”